unofficial_zenithfandomcom-20200214-history
Email Updates
=Update 1: Why we're working on Zenith ��= Hi, <>. How’s it going? I’m Andy Ramen, one of the developers working on Zenith -- the VR massively multiplayer online RPG that you signed up to learn about. Thanks for subscribing to our mailing list. We super appreciate it. This transmission will talk about our studio’s background, and give an overview of Zenith. We’re a small 3 person gaming studio. Lauren is the technical wizard, Will is the artistic genius, and I’m the guy that tries to do too many things, all, with varying degrees of mediocrity. You’ll be hearing from them later, but I digress.. Lauren and I both quit our jobs in Silicon Valley to build this VR MMO -- we’re staking our livelihoods on Zenith because we believe if we want it, others do as well. Our last game was a competitive shooter called Conjure Strike -- it was a finalist for a Multiplayer Game of the Year award, and a VR Game of the Year award. We coproduced it with Oculus, and launched it on Steam and Vive. Together, we have over a decade of experience working on games and tools -- so please Belieber us when we say we’ll ship. Now. Onto the game. Zenith is the first VR MMORPG to be set in an anime inspired sci-fantasy world. It’s a world where thousands of players can quest together in a permanently changing world and it’s different from anything else out there in every way you can imagine. It’s got new melee and spellcasting combat systems that bring you into the world without being tiring. It features a movement system that eliminates any nausea. (Smooth movement will also be an option.) And of course, a gorgeous world to explore. Of course it’s going to also have leveling, instanced dungeons, and loot, that provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes. JK, but it will feature an ImMeN Hello? Can anyone see this? I'm sorry; This is my first time using one of these transmitters. I don't know if anyone can see this , but... my son is gone. He always told me that if something happened to him to use this transmitter to contact the Sky Wave Network. Said they won't be able to trace it or something. He's a grown man, so I try not to follow behind him all the time, but it's been a week since I heard from him. I went over to his apartment this morning to check on him and I found a note on the door. It said -- Well, I guess I shouldn't read it on the Open Network, but I'm even more worried now. If you think you can help, meet me at the plaza at the link below, I'll explain everything. And Arik, if you can hear me, please let me know you're ok. All right, I don't know how people normally end these, so... please help. Thank you. http://skywave.ramenvr.com '' =Update 2: �� Why selfishly building Zenith for ourselves is good for you + BallOfDestruction(™) ��= Hi, <>. You’re awesome. I just wanted to let you know that. I’m really happy you are reading this. Hope you’ve been well since you we last spoke, and if not, I really hope it gets better. Now -- MORE STUFF ABOUT ZENITH! We recently made you a badass gravity well ability for our spellcaster class -- here's how it works: You throw this BallOfDestruction(™) at the baddies then you slam it down to create a powerful explosion. I bet they wished that they hadn’t aggroed you in the first place. Actually, they probably don’t have any thoughts anymore, given YOU MELTED THEIR FACES with your powerful mind. How did we come up with this delicious spell? Well first thing we ask ourselves is -- “Is this fun for us?” It sounds obvious, but so many developers (Past LaurAndy(™) included) make the mistake of designing a game we THINK you’ll like, instead of something we KNOW we love. The result is some half-butted thing we both hate. Womp Womp. Second thing we ask ourselves is do we know enough about this genre to know wth we are talking about? Like -- I play a poop-ton of FFXIV so I’m pretty sure I’ll know enough to build a game like Zenith to appeal to players of that genre. For example, for BallOfDestruction(™) we knew that the gravity well ability from Mass Effect was incredibly satisfying and would be even more dope in VR. Drawing on our past experiences, we knew this would be fun for US - and therefore fun for you as well. We also “invested” enough hours into Mass Effect, and other RPGs as well as MMOs to feel confident this would be fun. Side note: If you ever want a bulletproof excuse to play as many games as you want, join the games industry :) Disclaimer: These feature prototypes are SUPER early stages, and are subj 'Hello, it's me again. I think I'm getting the hang of this thing. I don't know if anyone out there is listening, but my son is still missing. I'm going to the plaza soon; if you think you can help me, PLEASE come and find me. I'll be waiting.' ''https://zenithmmo.com '' =Update 3: �� Preorder Zenith now to get early access and 50% off while supporting our ramen supply ��= Welp we have finally reached that portion of the program when I ask for your support. We’ve decided to open up Zenith for preorders for a very short, limited time and quantity for $20. Of course, every penny of the preorders goes directly into supporting our development of Zenith. We are paying ourselves minimum wage and ramen to survive. To show our appreciation for the super early support, all backers will receive the following *A full copy of the game forever on Steam or Oculus (huge discount at $20, which will be cheaper than the cheapest Kickstarter tier) *A super early pre-alpha build of our game in the next 1 - 3 months. *A Discord “Founder” role that also gives you access to a founders channel where we’ll post new content *A special in game outfit at launch Also big jazz hands reveal �� : Zenith will support non-vr desktop, too. Desktop gameplay will be asymmetric, because we wanted to create something truly unique for each platform. In addition, the progress you make on desktop will carry over to VR. ����''Mic Drop For the past few months, we’ve been burning the midnight oil to prove to ourselves, and investors that we could build something as massive as Zenith. After many sleepless nights, and ungodly amounts of ramen consumption, we finally came up with a prototype for our game and secured funding from investors. That’s why we feel good about offering the preorder campaign now. We’re trying to do something really big, and if we’re going to make this an amazing game, we’ll need all the support we can get. Thanks, everyone. PS you should pop into our Discord to ask me any questions about the preorder or say hi to fellow Zenitheans Andy =Update 4: ⚡Last day to preorder Zenith at 50% off and get founder rewards.⚡= Today is the last full day you can preorder Zenith for 20 dollars. We added PayPal support, too, for those of you wondering. We've also included some gameplay footage that shows our melee combat. Keep in mind that a lot of it is going to change. The founder preorder includes the full game at launch, access to the prealpha and a special founders role on our Discord. (Which you should join and ask questions!) It's been amazing to see how many of you have preordered already, more than 2 times what we expected! We love you. Have a great sunday. Andy =Update 5: Stay classy my fellow Zenitheans.����= Hey Hotshot, We’re just chillin’ like villains here in our investor’s office and couldn't stop thinking about you. Today we’ll talk to them about the recent success of the preorders. WE LOVE YOU GUYS. Also, now that all the $$$ preorder money $$$ is safely tucked under our mattress, I can give you folks updoots about the game! ALSO look at that schweet concept art above. ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL?? Many of you have asked about how progression will work. Will there be classes? Will there be the holy trinity of Tank, DPS, and Healer? How will we enable customization yet still allow roles to exist? We struggled to answer this ourselves -- this is not easy. We need to carefully balance the needs of our most hardcore players (you know who you are p0rpols <3) and the “casual” (if such a thing exists) MMORPG players that haven’t even heard of our game yet. We believe we have a solution (maybe) Hedge hedge hedge -- please note that this is still prealpha and systems are subject to change. . . . This is what we’re thinking, though -- we’re thinking of allowing every. single. class. to Tank, DPS, or Heal depending on the ability loadout they select while outside of combat. Ability loadouts are essentially a set of abilities you can equip at any given time. Feel like playing a mage that can tank? Or perhaps a tank that can heal? Or an unannounced that can DPS? GO FOR IT! We’re completely getting rid of the traditional ideas of roles within classes. In this new scheme, you level up your class, and get abilities for healing, tanking, and DPSing, each of them unique to the class itself. Which class you are assigned will be based on the abilities you choose before you leave the safe zone. Of course this opens up a whole new clam of wyrms on the balancing and item progression side. For now, we’re thinking that primary item stats for class armor and weapons change depending on what your “primary” class is. We’re also thinking of customizable perks that you slot in that increase passive stats. We’ll be clarifying more of this in the days to come, but for now! Don’t spam me with questions about, like, item progression, and skill trees here. PLZ. I’ve porpoisely left them out of this email because I don’t wanna talk about it yet. Bythe way credit goes to Chrono (in our Discord) for originally sparking this idea. We love our P0rpols. Andy =Update 6: Death, Love, and Free Stuff ��= What’s up everyone! It’s been a busy July here at Sphagetti VR. We are gearing up for Kickstarter, we’re building the game, and shooting footage. First of all -- we did a live stream with Eric For President! And we gave way more details than we planned out.. Oops. So don’t check it out! Or we’re screwed. (But if you want to, It’s relatively short). Guess what! We were super nervous! We aren’t used to doing livestreams like that, it was literally our first time. Woohoo, achievement UNLOCKED. Finally, we’re trying to grow our Discord to 10,000 people (definitely not because we want to lock you in a deadly VR experience that you can never escape! Trust us) We recently hit 1000 -- woohoo! We need your help growing the community, so we’re launching a new Discord referral prize program, you can read about that here Talk to yOu LAt3----*ZZZTtttt* ''-- 200 years ago, outside Zenith, once the gate had been permanently shut'' Marik, You died when the sky became fire. That is what all have said. Why do I keep writing like you still draw breath? Speaking of breathing -- some days it feels like I can’t breathe. Did you ever feel like that? Like, no matter what you did, how hard you tried that It Didn’t Matter? Every battlefield. Every city, town, and village. Every friend we bury, nothing changes. Inch by inch, the God King’s forces gain ground. Millions of lives lost. Friends dying with the hope that their sacrifices were not in vain. That their children might see better days. For the living, the burdens the dead have placed feel too much to bear. Are you dead, my love? Out here, while the war rages on the gates of Zenith remain shut. Their mages and engineers work day and night to keep the barriers up, shutting out enemy and civilians alike. But if humanity somehow makes it through this blight, it will be because of us. Us. Will their children learn of the sacrifices we made? Outlanders that they see as inhuman? Still we.. we live on -- out of heroism? Or instinct? For me, I fight to live for the same reason I write: you exist only in my memories, and I refuse to let you die. '' ''The Essence Demons come again. Let them. '' ''From Ezma - The journal of the first Essence Mage. =Update 7: Introducing our first class, the Essence Mage. ��= Sorry for sending our weekly email so late in the week! In our defense, time is no longer a concept we understand. We’ve been grinding day and night because we have some super exciting things to share with you. Hours, days, minutes, it’s all the same to us. �� If you are reading this on a Saturday night, you must truly love our game. So thank you. You guys are why we are working so hard on this. But well -- today’s your lucky day because you get to be the first person outside of our team to meet the Essence Mage, the very first class concept reveal! Meet Esma. Esma belongs to a long, and proud line of Essence Mages -- here is an excerpt from the archives: From a young age, promising candidates are selected from the general population of Zenith to undergo this strict training. The learning of the way is strictly regulated, as it relies on hidden teachings that can only be discovered outside of the city. Unlike citizens of Zenith, essence mages spend a large part of their teenage years learning how to manipulate essence outside of Zenith, and so they interact with both Zenitheans, as well as the wandering, nomad clans of the borderlands. Because they lead such cloistered lifestyles but share so many experiences normal citizens never see, they are at once more knowledgeable and more sheltered. '' Make sure you read last week’s email if you want to learn more about the first Essence Mage. Here are just a few of the skills the Essence Mage can use: Telekenesis - Pick up in game objects and hurl them with the force of a thousand hurricanes. Clean your room with ease! Chain Lighting - Charge up and release bolts of lightning from your hands. Lightning will jump and arc from target to target, burning them to a crisp. Gravity Well - Suck enemies into a giant gravitational vortex which renders them immobile, then slam them down onto the earth for maximum damage. Be careful of time dilation? Earth Shield - Pull essence enchanted rocks up from the ground to create a protective barrier around you and your allies. Anyways, we gotta go back to “work” now.. I guess we can’t complain too much.. We get to build games for a living. 'Oh and PS. We’ll be making some pretty exciting, and big announcements next week that you’ll want to hear about. Check that inbox on Monday and throughout the week :)' Andy =Update 8: The Zenith Kickstarter starts one week from today. ����= To all earthlings -- Those in our Discord and those that are on this mailing list. My Gr3ns, P0rpls, BlUwUs and yell0w0s: Today we have a special announcement: '''Zenith’s Kickstarter will launch 7 days from now, on August 12, 2019.' To celebrate the occasion, and whet your appetites, we’ll be releasing a new piece of content and news on our Discord and Twitter every day from now until launch. We’re calling it #ZenWeek. We’d like to kick off #ZenWeek with mysterious footage we received from someone on the Zenith Skywave. We’ve all dreamed of a future where we could exist in a new reality -- free from limitations and daily challenges. An incredibly fun and immersive game, yes, but also a metaverse to make friends, and reach our true potential. A future that many of us have been working hard to achieve and that many of you have supported out of pure faith. We are not at the end, or even the middle of Zenith’s saga. This is only the beginning of the beginning -- but the launch of our Kickstarter does represent the next step of our journey. You, Lauren, and I are all united by the collective dream of Zenith. Next week, you’ll have the chance to help bring that dream closer to reality. Today we unite as one common people: my fellow Zenitheans! I know I was being a little over dramatic in the above post -- but we’re just so excited about this week, and we can’t wait to share it with you. Andy and Lauren TLDR; Zenith’s Kickstarter is launching on 8/12, support us and save bunches of money, receiving special rewards in the process. We’ll be revealing new content and teasers every day via Discord, Facebook, and Twitter. =Update 9: Back Zenith on Kickstarter in < 24 hours ⏰= Tomorrow morning 10AM, Monday, 8/12 is the official launch date of the Kickstarter! Mark your calendars. Did you do it? I’ll wait. . . ! At this point, we've probably been grinding nonstop for the past two weeks and so my humor levels are definitely not under 9000, so this email will be a bit more straight forward. Read on for details about the launch though. DingBo demands your obedience (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ Some announcements (probably familiar to those in Discord): We're giving a 20% finder's fee in cash every time you get another person to back our Kickstarter. You guys help build this community, now help us grow it! The referral link will be sent in our launch email tomorrow. Secondly, join our Discord to see all the reveals we've made this week, if you haven't already. (Like our main theme song, by Jordan Chin which Emi Evans, of NieR:Automata will be contributing on -- seriously, listen to it!) Lastly we'd like to thank you all for coming with us on this journey. It's an incredible privilege to work on a game like this, but we couldn't have done it without your support along the way. We won't let you down! PS -- if you want to read more about the lore of Zenith, feel free to checkout this post we made last night. =Update 10: The Zenith Kickstarter is now live! Get your copy now. ��= The portal to Zenith has opened for but a brief moment, will you answer the call? You can now get Zenith via our Kickstarter! This is your chance to show your support and help us bring our shared dream to life. Together, we'll make history and the most immersive and engaging MMO ever created for VR and Desktop. In addition to the launch of our Kickstarter, we're also revealing a gameplay trailer on the Kickstarter page. There are some amazing backer awards, including things like statues, quest design, and even spending a day with us, all expenses paid. We're so excited to you are a part of this journey with us :) Back Us Now PS after you back our Kickstarter, share us with your friends and family: earn 20% of every pledge that comes through your referral link. Get your referral link here: https://zenith-the-first-cross.kickbooster.me/boost. '' =Update 11: Zenith: 300% funded and additional $100k stretch goal! ��= Hey Zenitheans, the Kickstarter went live on Monday, and as of this writing we are over 300% funded! This community is the best. We mean it. I’m actually wiping away tears as I type this... ... ANYWAY, we wanted to say thank you for all your support, so we’re going to release a different version of the trailer with more gameplay than the one you saw on the Kickstarter. Many of you have asked for player housing, which is the $100k stretch goal. BUT, we really want to hit the goal by the end of the weekend, so if we do, we will throw in a second stretch goal: '~*ANIME THEME SONG KARAOKE*~' That’s right, the devs will get on a livestream and sing the theme songs of as many animes as we can. Be honest, you know you want to see that... Backing the Kickstarter also gives you access to all sorts of rewards beyond the game itself, like closed alpha/beta access, a special Discord role, and the ability to work on a quest with the devs. Back Us Now ''PS after you back our Kickstarter, share us with your friends and family: earn 20% of every pledge that comes through your referral link. Get your referral link here: https://zenith-the-first-cross.kickbooster.me/boost. '' =Update 12: ���� In two hours watch us singing your favorite weeb themes. Also, introducing the Mineko! ��= Woah my dudes and dudettes... This person in this picture below is shielding themselves from the tears of happiness Lauren and I are shedding. I can't believe we hit $200,000 on our Kickstarter in 3 weeks! We knew you were crazy about Zenith, but we never imagined we'd hit this goal so quickly. I mean WTF right? We are now one of the most successful VR tagged gaming kickstarters of all time, and it's all thanks to you guys! As a celebration, at 10AM PST TODAY we will be live streaming ourselves singing your favorite anime songs. You can check that out here: https://youtu.be/zZ7MSvzWnsk Do not miss it. It will be hilarious. (And if you do there will be a recording) Last but not least, there is the question of the new race reveal at $200,000. Introducing The Mineko people! Now -- this will be controversial for some of you, but..we really like cats (in case you haven't noticed.) so we decided to stick to our guns and make a race of cat people. The art isn't ready yet but we'll have something for you before the end of the month. Again, this happened way faster than expected - so it's your fault! Hopefully this sweet, juicy, lore, will help sate your thirst for now.. ''A pair of fraternal twins were born into a grassland tribe. Both brother and sister had the pointed ears of an animal and their eyes were tightly closed. The people were shocked, and some believed their strange appearance to be the result of human wickedness, but they raised the blind children as their own. One day, the children finally opened their eyes. Unmistakably catlike, their eyes sparkled like jewels. Upon seeing the children’s catlike eyes, the people were too afraid and cast them out to wander the desert alone forever. -- Excerpt from an ancient holy text Many in Zenith have read the ancient legends about the origin of the Mineko people, but to most people they are little more than thousand-year old fairy tales. Mineko are a humanoid race from a faraway land, though there are also Mineko communities in and around Zenith. They are distinguished by their cats’ eyes, pointed ears, and tails. They are, on average, the same height as humans, but they tend to be more slender and lithe than the average human. They are extremely nimble, able to jump long distances and maintain their balance well. For many years, the Mineko Ballet has been a popular Zenith attraction; humans and Mineko alike love to watch the graceful dancers. Mineko are generally outgoing, and enjoy the company of other races. Many of them have a heightened sense of empathy and can sense other people’s moods. In Zenith, many Mineko are judges and justices because their good natures and even tempers make them well suited to making impartial judgements. Somewhat counterintuitively, they are generally poor athletes despite their agility, mostly because they dislike conflict and competition. There is only one thing that will set Mineko on edge: barking dogs. Andy =Update 13: �� Zenitheans, meet the Blade Master= What happens when you try cutting an apple with your hand? Are knives just tiny swords, or are swords tiny knives? When we began to make our melee class, these were just some of the difficult questions we sought to answer! Thankfully, terrible infomercials from the 1980s helped us solve the first question: Since hands are so woefully unequipped to slice apples, we decided monks and boxers would be too weak. You should know that the second place name for our new class was ‘The Tickler’. Luckily the top minds of Zenith prevailed at the last minute, and thus did we change the name. So today, meet our new dual wielding sword class: The Blade Master! The Blade Master imbues their bodies and physical weapons with essence to augment a lifetime of physical combat training. Using their abilities and skills, she can overwhelm their opponents with physical onslaughts, shield their party members, or even support them with curative abilities and passive effects. The Blade Master uses two weapons to execute skills using physical gestures. Some skills require both swords, while others are executed with just one. The Blade Master uses two weapons to execute skills using physical gestures. Some skills require both swords, while others are executed with just one. Combat feels fluid, strategic, and fast-paced -- almost dancelike. We didn’t want it to feel frantic, or have any noodle sword-fighting. Like all of our other classes, the Blade Master can play all three of the roles (Support, DPS, and Tank), but the default will be tanking. *Here are just some of the abilities the Blade Master has at her disposal (subject to change): *Vampiric Trance - cross slash outwards with both weapons to activate a 15s buff that increases damage and heals you with every attack *Forceshield - Slash outwards from left to right with your off-hand weapon, the next attack is completely blocked. *Agi Up - Increases attack speed for your next attack -- Swing your offhand weapon from top to bottom. *Sword Bash - Bring both your weapons down top to bottom, stun the enemy for a few seconds. *Rush - Rush forward with blinding speed to close the distance with your enemy. Category:Dev Updates